Beat Maker project

This is a project I've had in the works for a while. Right now it is called the Beat Maker. Pretty unoriginal, but it will get a proper name at some point. Sydney Jr., after the flesh and blood drummer in my band, is high in the running. The idea is to have an interface which produces midi drum patterns in a semi-random fashion. The main controls are four slide pots which adjust the pattern in each of the four channels, kick drum, snare/hi-hat, toms and cymbals. Each channel also has a switch which enables programming on the pattern. Programming is controlled by three momentary switches and one regular pot. There is one additional regular pot which controls the tempo.

The hardware is essentially complete. The housing is some sort of sewing box or tackle box I got from Value Village for two bucks. The knobs were also Value Village purchases. I used a rotary tool to create holes in the bottom and fit them onto the controls. Controls consists of 4x 2.5K slide pots (the small heads), 2x 5K pots (the large heads), 4x toggle switches and 3x momentary switches. Here is a close up of the main control panel.


I also have a power switch, midi jack and midi by-pass switch mounted on the side.

The guts are powered by an Arduino. The latest version of the firmware can be found on github. Here is a shot of the inside of the case.


The circuit board that is connected to the Arduino will have a programmed ATmega168 mounted in the empty socket once the firmware is complete. The controls, leds and midi port are all connected directly to the circuit board. The pins of the socket are then broken out to male headers on the board which I've connected to the Arduino with some cables I made. The only remaining part of the hardware is the power supply. While developing and testing it is powered through the usb.

The firmware as of this writing is functional but hasn't been tweaked. I will post some video of it in action soon.

First Post ( Score 5, Awesome )

Welcome to the goldfish creations blog. Mainly I plan on posting about projects that I'm working on, along with other miscellanei. Check it out, making up words already. So yeah, my first post is going to be more along the lines of the second type.

When I'm in a crowd or at a large event I love doing an awesome social experiment. First, I take a picture using my camera phone. Usually something related to where I am. The other night I was at a hockey game, so I took this picture.


Then I try to send the picture to anyone around me who happens to have their bluetooth enabled on their phone or pda. About a third of the people accepted the picture. I probably transferred 10 pictures over the evening. The best part of this experiment is trying to locate the person who accepts the picture. You get about 20 or 30 seconds to quickly scan around and look for someone staring at their phone. This is also the hardest part of the experiment, although the other night I was successful.

I was waiting for my friend who, unlike myself, had clearly picked the wrong line-up for beer. I sat down on a nearby bench and started trying to send the picture. Second try I get one, and the guy is sitting 5 feet from me. He was in his forties, getting wasted with some buddies. He's all excited. "Hey, guys check it out someone's sending me a picture on my phone!" It was pretty awesome.